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How could they not mention the most important and groundbreaking one, although it doesnt release in 2018. https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/ https://puri.sm/shop/li

How could they not mention the most important and groundbreaking one, although it doesnt release in 2018. https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/ https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/

mads 9y ago
Building a phone isn't easy (obviously ;)). Been there myself and it may not even be due to incompetence from Purism's side. Your leverage as a small manufacturer with low quantities is just almost non-existing. Their main problem is probably not going to be on the software or hardware design and I think they can probably get a good working dev-kit out in Jun-2018 as they state. Their main challenge is probably going to be on the mechanical design, if they want to mass produce something that is on par with other phones out there quality wise. I don't know anything about their team and their experience, but that Jan-2019 release date could shift quite a bit. Especially if they need custom tooling or non standard parts. 6 months will evaporate really really fast, when retooling or changes in material is involved. I love the project though and I hope they succeed. I have been looking for something like this and I will surely buy one, if they can deliver.
- mattnewport 9y ago
  I have my preorder in for a Librem 5 and I kind of hope they just give up trying to compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung on making a super slim form factor. I don't know how much it simplifies the mechanical design but I'd love a phone that just throws a huge battery in even if it's twice as thick as an S9. My last Samsung phone ended up being more than twice as thick anyway due to needing a Mophie external battery case just to make it through a full day of ordinary use. My ideal is a phone with a huge battery and sturdy enough not to need a protective case, if that makes it 16mm+ thick I'm absolutely fine with that.
nextos 9y ago
That's true. We need a phone running a pure Linux userland. The Nokia N770-N9 saga was too good to be forgotten. IMHO, Librem should include some form of physical keyboard to take full advantage of Linux. GNOME is already quite touch friendly, but still. Aside, Jolla seems to be going to be purchased quite soon. I hope the new owners try to come up with a new business model that involves open-source. Sailfish failed to attract a critical mass of developers due to closed components and never meeting their own open-sourcing promises.
- mpol 9y ago
  Jolla is very much in survival-mode. Their priority is to build a sustainable business. Making Silica open source is not aiding that sustainable business in the short term. Be aware, making software open source involves a lot of work. You don't just throw stuff over the fence and be done with it. You need to maintain it, review and apply patches, answer questions, write docs. That doesn't come free, and doesn't help the cause of surviving in the short term. Just look around at all the businesses that have failed to make a sustainable business out of mobile linux phones. Ubuntu Touch is dead, and forked into UBports. Firefox OS is dead, and forked into something else. Purism has a good marketing team, but they are just starting. It is not easy to create a sustainable business out of this. And users are very critical and often demand feature parity with iOS and Android.
  - nerdponx 9y ago
    You need to maintain it, review and apply patches, answer questions, write docs I don't understand this. None of that is necessary at all in order to release the source code. Just make it available to download. Heck, you can even "protect" it (nominally) with a download code that you ship along with the device, like you find with music.
    - mpol 9y ago
      Even then you need to vet it beforehand, if it all legal and clean to offer as open source download.
ekianjo 9y ago
The main focus on on devices that have physical controls, not just touch screens. But yeah, it could be worth mentioning anyway. And PostMarketOS at the same time.

How could they not mention the most important and groundbreaking one, although it doesnt release in 2018. https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/ https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/

mads 9y ago

Building a phone isn't easy (obviously ;)). Been there myself and it may not even be due to incompetence from Purism's side. Your leverage as a small manufacturer with low quantities is just almost non-existing. Their main problem is probably not going to be on the software or hardware design and I think they can probably get a good working dev-kit out in Jun-2018 as they state. Their main challenge is probably going to be on the mechanical design, if they want to mass produce something that is on par with other phones out there quality wise. I don't know anything about their team and their experience, but that Jan-2019 release date could shift quite a bit. Especially if they need custom tooling or non standard parts. 6 months will evaporate really really fast, when retooling or changes in material is involved. I love the project though and I hope they succeed. I have been looking for something like this and I will surely buy one, if they can deliver.

mattnewport 9y ago
I have my preorder in for a Librem 5 and I kind of hope they just give up trying to compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung on making a super slim form factor. I don't know how much it simplifies the mechanical design but I'd love a phone that just throws a huge battery in even if it's twice as thick as an S9. My last Samsung phone ended up being more than twice as thick anyway due to needing a Mophie external battery case just to make it through a full day of ordinary use. My ideal is a phone with a huge battery and sturdy enough not to need a protective case, if that makes it 16mm+ thick I'm absolutely fine with that.

nextos 9y ago

That's true. We need a phone running a pure Linux userland. The Nokia N770-N9 saga was too good to be forgotten. IMHO, Librem should include some form of physical keyboard to take full advantage of Linux. GNOME is already quite touch friendly, but still. Aside, Jolla seems to be going to be purchased quite soon. I hope the new owners try to come up with a new business model that involves open-source. Sailfish failed to attract a critical mass of developers due to closed components and never meeting their own open-sourcing promises.

mpol 9y ago
Jolla is very much in survival-mode. Their priority is to build a sustainable business. Making Silica open source is not aiding that sustainable business in the short term. Be aware, making software open source involves a lot of work. You don't just throw stuff over the fence and be done with it. You need to maintain it, review and apply patches, answer questions, write docs. That doesn't come free, and doesn't help the cause of surviving in the short term. Just look around at all the businesses that have failed to make a sustainable business out of mobile linux phones. Ubuntu Touch is dead, and forked into UBports. Firefox OS is dead, and forked into something else. Purism has a good marketing team, but they are just starting. It is not easy to create a sustainable business out of this. And users are very critical and often demand feature parity with iOS and Android.
- nerdponx 9y ago
  You need to maintain it, review and apply patches, answer questions, write docs I don't understand this. None of that is necessary at all in order to release the source code. Just make it available to download. Heck, you can even "protect" it (nominally) with a download code that you ship along with the device, like you find with music.
  - mpol 9y ago
    Even then you need to vet it beforehand, if it all legal and clean to offer as open source download.

ekianjo 9y ago

The main focus on on devices that have physical controls, not just touch screens. But yeah, it could be worth mentioning anyway. And PostMarketOS at the same time.